Mentor Parents Are Becoming Everyday Healers for Traumatized Children

Training Mentor Parents in Trauma-Informed Counselling

On 5 June 2025, mentor parents, ordinary mothers and fathers with extraordinary commitment, came together for a powerful session on trauma-informed counselling. These are not doctors in white coats or professionals in suits. They are community parents who have chosen to be safe spaces, first responders, and voices of hope for children carrying invisible scars.

Rooted in the CFC Project

The Mentor Parent initiative is part of Viva Network Zimbabwe’s Child Friendly Churches (CFC) project, and it was first birthed in 2022. Since then, it has steadily grown into a vital arm of community-based child protection. Mentor parents are not outsiders parachuted in, but trusted members of the community who live, worship, and raise families in the same neighborhoods as the children they support.

Everyday Heroes in the Community

Day to day, mentor parents serve as listening ears and guiding hands for children and families. They provide emotional support, visit homes, link vulnerable children to churches and social services, mediate in family disputes, and ensure that children who are at risk are not left alone in their struggles. They are the “first line of care” in communities, accessible, trusted, and committed.

Shifting Hearts, Not Just Minds

This particular training was more than a lesson. It was a transformation. Parents discovered how trauma shapes the way children behave, speak, and trust. They learned that healing does not begin with advice but with listening, believing, and being present.

Two simple yet powerful counselling methods were introduced:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): helping children understand and reframe negative thoughts.
• Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT): guiding children to focus on strengths and future solutions rather than past pain.

With these tools, mentor parents are now better equipped to walk alongside children facing abuse, neglect, or emotional distress.

Speaking Healing Without Words

The training emphasized the power of silence, body language, tone, and timing. Parents learned to look beyond a tantrum and into the child’s heart. They are now discovering how to speak healing—even without words, offering safety through presence and compassion.

Impact Beyond the Training Room

Already, over 330 families are being supported by mentor parents through this initiative. From earlier training cycles, 45 trained mentors are actively responding to real-life cases across communities, proving that this approach is not only practical but deeply impactful.

This is the heart of Viva Network Zimbabwe’s vision: equipping ordinary people to bring extraordinary healing. When parents are empowered to understand trauma and respond with love, children gain a lifeline of hope, and families become places of safety and restoration.